Question
I have 2 problems and it might only really be one.



1st- Only one zone is getting watered.

2nd The pump takes too long to start pumping water.



Explanation: First of all the, it takes 2-4 minutes for the pump to pump water though the sprinkler  system and before it use to be almost immediate. The problem started after someone changed the sprinkler zone head and a few other tubes leading to it.  



Everything works well when the system first turns on and water starts flowing to zone 1other than the fact that it takes longer than before. The problem starts after the pump shuts down and automatically restarts 10 minutes later at which point is suppose to start watering the second zone. What happens is initially when the pump starts it pumps water to zone 2 for a few seconds, I guess the water that is held in the tubes. After a few seconds the water stops flowing through the sprinkler system until a few minutes later when the pump really actually starts to pump water from the well.  At this point the sprinkler valve has switched over to zone 1 again because water stopped flowing and the valve has settled to restart at the next zone. So because of this cycle only zone 1 is getting watered. I now have to shut of the pump and restart it again a few seconds later so the valve changes to zone 2 for that zone to get watered. Since I only shut it down for a few seconds the pump is still pumping from the well when I immediately turn it back on and it keeps watering until it automatically shuts of at the scheduled time.



How can I take care of this issue? Please help.  

Answer
Jose,
Sorry, I'm late on answering your question. I got so many questions all of of sudden and that's the name of that tune. you gave me pretty good info, so let's see.

Now, I don't know if all this can be blamed on the guy that changrd the head and by tubes I think you the pipes involved in getting water to that head or something. I know that you might not know exactly what the guy did and I don't either. So, this is what I've got.

The well pump is doing good on the first zone, then it sswitches to #2 and is shutting down and then kicking back on 10 minutes later.This to sounds like obviously the pump is overheating and tripping the reset switch that is built into the pump to keep it from burning out. That switch keeps you from having to buy a new pump every time that happens. So, that is good and normal. Now, the next question is why is that happening.

One possible explation is that the pump/well is not as efficient as it used to be. You did not say how old those things were, so that is one possibility. One thing that may be going on there is that when the zone are switching from #1 to #2 thers is a short period of time when the first valve is closing and the second one is opening that you actually have both valve running at the same time. The pump is maxxing out becuase it can't work that hard anymore. I donot know if this pump is dedicated to the sprinkler system alone or if it also pumps water to your house. The sprinkler system pull much more water than your house, so you may not notice any difference to your house.

Then, it is possible that the guy that did the work with the head and the tubes/laterals/pipes either hooked up something that is leaking or put on a head that is using too much water(too big of a nozzle) and that the pump can't handle the water needed and is overheating. I can't blame the guy because I don't know who he is or who he works for or even what part of the world you live in.

Pumps lose efficiency with age, that is the way it is and if that is the case,then the answer may be in the clock(controller). They make fairly inexpensive clocks that have something call pump delay. This gives the well time to recover before it switches to the next zone. This would be less expensive than replacing the well pump if that is the case. The fact that it happened after something got changed does lead one to think that something may just be leaking so bad that the pump can't handle it. So look for a leak when #2 does kick on or call them back and have them do that and eliminate that and it would have to be a big obvious leak I would think and get back to me if you need to

          Thanks, Jim G @ JGirrigation